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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24981022">Rot</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MLMDarkFiction/pseuds/MLMDarkFiction'>MLMDarkFiction</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abandonment, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Unrequited Love</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:49:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24981022</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MLMDarkFiction/pseuds/MLMDarkFiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>And to Kell, despite how much he’d missed his friend, despite how many nights he’d stayed awake praying to the Goddess that Cedric would return to save him from the constant abuse, to find Cedric here and now felt like nothing more than a slap to the face.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Male Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this AGES ago on my word processor, but I only just got a new cord for it so I could transfer it over. </p><p>I have plans to eventually use these ocs in a long, oc-centric, multichapter fic following the events of the game where the reader takes the place of Byleth and story based decisions are chosen by the readers in the form of a poll...but for now just take this oneshot.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“You left! You left me there to rot! How could you?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The angry words  into empty space. There’s no one to receive them, after all. It’s all the words Kell had been wanting to tell Cedric ever since finding him again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All this time he’d been so close, and yet so far out of reach. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And he’s back. He’s back and he’s acting as if nothing has changed. As if everything’s the same as it was before.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And to Kell, despite how much he’d missed his friend, despite how many nights he’d stayed awake praying to the Goddess that Cedric would return to save him from the constant abuse, to find Cedric here and now felt like nothing more than a slap to the face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cedric deserves it. He deserves to hear exactly what Kell went through because of him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All the things Kell went through alone without him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Would Cedric even care?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Surely…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Surely he would.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Surely he did. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell had to convince himself that Cedric cared. To think the other boy didn’t was too heart breaking to imagine. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But even as deserving as Cedric is of the anger, of the vengeful words Kell has to give…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’ll never actually hear them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell could never actually tell Cedric how he feels. As much as he wants to. As much as he needs to. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because they were best friends once. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell knows if he forces Cedric to listen to him, and to his anger, it will only hurt the other boy. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And Kell can’t hurt him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As hurt as he is himself, he simply can’t. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t have it in him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So instead he yells, he screams, he breaks holes into the wall, breaks skin with shallow bladed cuts of his axe. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I loved you! I loved you and you left me to die!” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Is it an exaggeration?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maybe.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Every time...Every time it happened Kell felt a piece of him die. Whether a real part of himself died and withered or if it was simply his childlike innocence he doesn’t know.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He just knows that it was real. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Who he is now is nothing but a corpse of a young man who had at one point been filled with potential. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And in Kell’s mind Cedric had simply left him to rot.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There is no excuse. No pretending that Cedric simply didn’t know the life he was leaving Kell behind to live in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because even as a child, Cedric knew what was going on behinds the closed doors of the Kingsley Estate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cedric knew, because everyone who was anyone in the Empire did. The head of the Kingsley family abusing his young nephew was simply a well known secret of the Adrestian Nobility.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Growing up the boy’s families had been close. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell’s uncle, and Cedric’s parents especially. They were more than business partners, they were friends.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was this commonality, this camaraderie in sharing the blood of monsters that had caused the boys to bond in the first place. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And eventually Cedric was there, always there, when Kell’s uncle had finished with him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cedric was always there to put Kell back together again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was always there, until he wasn’t.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why didn’t you take me with you?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finally the anger subsides, the real emotion taking its place. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pain. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Heartbreak. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Acceptance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maybe Cedric was trying to protect Kell from the life he knew he was entering by leaving the Nobility behind, but to leave with no word, no choice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell would never be able to forgive him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Things would never be the same between them now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Although deep down he wishes they could be.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cedric should have stayed gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kell should have stayed dead.</span>
</p>
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